Rabbi's Blog

​​​​​​​Join the Ultimate Jewish Book Club!

     Almost exactly a year ago (according to the Jewish calendar), I sent out the email you can find below in the green box.
     I introduced the idea of reading a section of the Torah, of the prophets (Nevi'im), and of the Writings (Ketuvim) each day. In doing so, without biting off too much each day, one can finish reading the entire TaNaKh in a year. This is all laid out below.
     Over the holidays, I shared that one of the ways I missed the mark this year was by not keeping up and not completing this task. I got behind a few times and caught back up. Other times I just needed to skip to get back onto the schedule. But other times, I just never got back on track.
     So, it's a new year. We can all commit (or recommit) ourselves to endeavors we want to complete but have fallen short in the past.
     We read the Torah each year and personally I find that each time I do I notice something new, whether it is new meaning, an insight I hadn't had before or a connection to my life that would not have touched me in the same way in the past. I expect that reading the TaNaKh can bring a similar result when done in a systemic and regular way (at least I'm hoping it will). I know that there are some sections that are more difficult to make our way through but there are in the Torah too. I will try to share insights I have as I read this year and welcome others to do the same. You can see in the email below how to sign up to join a conversation that hopefully will be more active this year than last, starting with me.

But that's not all, if you are looking for something new (or another renewed experience), I am restarting the Shabbat Morning Mishnah Study before Saturday Shabbat services. Join on Zoom or in-person, as we make our way through another section of the Mishnah. This Shabbat, we will begin our journey through Mishnah Shekalim. You can find the first couple of chapters here and here. In the future, more will be placed on the TI website.

I look forward to beginning anew in many ways. It'll be great to have many of you learning along with me.

l'Shalom,
Rabbi Werbow

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     Usually, when I am referring to something from a biblical text, I’ll say it is from the Jewish Bible. This evades the conversation about saying Old Testament and its relationship with the New Testament (Which I refer to as the Christian Bible. However, an easier way to deal with this, for those in the know is to refer to it as the תַּנַ״ךְ (TaNaKh).

     תַּנַ״ךְ, as indicated by the two apostrophes, is an acronym. It is made up of three sections, the Torah (the first five books), the Nevi’im (the Prophets) and Ketuvim (the Writings). When taking the first letter of each word we get תַּנַ״ךְ (with the Khaf of Ketuvim changing to a final letter and a Kh sound instead).

     Among Conservative Jews there is a general familiarity with the material in the Torah but less so when it comes to Nevi’im and Ketuvim (NaKh). This includes your rabbi. Yes, I have read many parts of these sections and have studied some of the books in more detail but still have nowhere near the kind of grasp on them as I do the Torah. This is not necessarily surprising when we read the entirety of the Torah each year but don’t generally do so with NaKh.

     So, I am looking for others who want to go on this journey with me. Starting with Simchat Torah, I will be reading a section of Torah, Nevi’im and Ketuvim each day so I can complete the whole TaNaKah in one year. This will mean reading roughly 1/7 of the weekly Torah reading, one chapter of Nevi’im and one chapter of Ketuvim. Sometimes we will have to read more than one Aliyah or more than one chapter but this will be the general approach. There are resources that I will share to help give more insight into the texts and there will be an email group that you can subscribe to to share insights, questions or things that the text made you think about. Hopefully this will lead to conversations about the texts and deeper understanding for us all.

     You can join this conversation by sending a blank email to TaNaKh_with_TI+subscribe@googlegroups.com or by sending me an email requesting to join.

     To assist in keeping track of where we are, I have begun a document where you can find the daily reading from each section as well as links to find those texts in Sefaria, an online library or Jewish texts. You can click here to view this listing.

     There will be more updates in the future as we complete books of the bible and move on to new ones.

     I hope you come along on this journey with us.

     Rabbi Werbow